Ecosystem services explained in 90 secs

Having discovered Powtoon, I’ve now made another one. This time, with my elder son’s voice over, we’ve made a little introduction to the concept of natural capital and ecosystem services. You might argue that the “payment” bit is a bit presumptuous, but I wanted to at least raise the question of who has responsibility to do something about the “big machine”. Whether that is through regulation, fines, taxation, or trading… well, that is the tricky bit. But one way or another, we will pay for it in the end.

Discussion

6 thoughts on “Ecosystem services explained in 90 secs”

You can read a neat little critical appraisal of the video here: https://medium.com/p/20d979a649f0
I broadly agree with the critique — there are different stories that can be told. I will admit (as I did above) that there is a presumption of economic value being at the core of the issue. But that presumption is based on the concept of $$ being a unit to make comparisons, and decisions, not the *value* in itself. And that language makes sense to many people.

Thanks for the comment, Alex. Not sure what you mean by your comments on the copyright statement. Copyright is there for the creator anyway. The statement merely reminds people that they are not free to do whatever they want with this video. The fact that it is public on Youtube means that viewing and sharing are clearly not restricted. Recording, modifying, selling in any way, is restricted. That’s fair, don’t you think?

Well done! I have shared it on Linkedin, Twitter and FB just now. Sums the issues up quite well in my opinion. Of course people can always pick holes in an effort, but until they post an improved (in their estimation at least) version, I don’t see the point in such negativity. That seems like lurching back to the system of avoided responsibility this little clip is calling to account🙂. Please do more.